Questions to Ask a Grant Writer

The questions

Open any question to see why it works.

1. 1

   What kinds of organizations have you written for?

   You are listening for whether they have worked in your field and at your size. Somebody who has raised money for hospitals may know none of the funders who give to a two person arts nonprofit, and those funder relationships are much of what you are paying for.

2. 2

   How many proposals did you submit last year, and how many were funded?

   A success rate means little without the denominator and the type of funding attached. Federal applications succeed at a far lower rate than local family foundations, so ask for the split rather than accepting a single headline percentage.

3. 3

   What is the largest award you have written that was funded, and what is typical for you?

   The typical figure matters more than the largest. Somebody whose work is mostly five thousand dollar community grants is doing a genuinely different job from somebody writing seven figure federal proposals, and both are legitimate work.

4. 4

   Do you do prospect research, or writing only?

   These are separate skills and many writers do only one of them. If you do not already have a pipeline of funders whose priorities match your programs, hiring a writer with no research capacity means paying for good prose aimed at the wrong people.

5. 5

   How do you charge: hourly, per proposal, or on retainer?

   Each structure has its own failure mode. Hourly needs a cap, per proposal needs a written definition of what counts as one, and a retainer needs an agreed volume of work. Ask which they prefer for a client like you, and why.

6. 6

   Do you ever work for a percentage of what is awarded?

   Fundraising ethics codes across the sector treat percentage based compensation as unacceptable, and many funders will not accept costs charged that way. A writer who offers it is telling you they work outside the professional norms of the field.

7. 7

   What do you need from us before you can start?

   The answer should be specific: audited financials, an organizational budget, the program logic, outcome data, board list, determination letter. If they say they can work from a conversation, expect to be rewriting their draft yourself at midnight.

8. 8

   Who writes the budget, and who signs off on the numbers?

   Budgets are where proposals fail review, and they have to reconcile with your actual accounting. A writer can assemble one but your finance person has to own it, and that boundary should be settled before the first deadline rather than the night before it.

9. 9

   What do you do when we cannot describe the program clearly ourselves?

   This is the real work in most engagements. Good writers say they will interview program staff and draft something for you to correct, which takes staff time you need to plan for. Anybody who says it is never a problem has not done much of this.

10. 10

    What is your turnaround, and how far ahead of a deadline do you need our materials?

    Two weeks before submission is common and three is safer, because a portal upload can eat an afternoon and a signature can take a week. Settle this now, since nearly every conflict in this kind of relationship comes back to it.

11. 11

    Who submits the application, and who holds the portal logins?

    Federal and state systems have registrations that expire and can take weeks to renew, and they belong to your organization rather than to the contractor. Keep the logins yourself and check the registrations long before you need them.

12. 12

    What happens if a deadline is missed because of a delay on our side?

    Ask for the policy before it happens. A clear answer, such as work stops and the fee still stands, is more useful than an accommodating one, because the accommodating version is how contractors quietly stop putting you first.

13. 13

    What do you do when a funder's priorities do not quite fit our program?

    The right answer includes a willingness to say the fit is not there. Stretching a program description to match a funder is how organizations end up with grants that cost more to deliver than they bring in.

14. 14

    Have you ever told a client not to apply for something?

    A writer paid per proposal has an incentive to apply for everything. Somebody who can describe a specific occasion when they advised against an application is showing you the judgment that is actually worth hiring.

15. 15

    Do you handle reports and renewals, or only new proposals?

    Reporting is where funders decide whether to give again, and it is the work most often left undone when a contract covers submissions only. Ask whether reports sit inside the scope or get billed separately, and at what rate.

16. 16

    Will you talk to program officers, and in whose name?

    Some funders expect contact from the organization rather than a contractor, and a call from an outside writer can count against you. Agree who makes the first approach and how the writer gets described if a program officer asks.

17. 17

    What does our boilerplate look like when you are finished, and do we keep it?

    The organizational description, history, staff biographies and outcome language get reused for years. Getting all of it back in a document you own is often worth more than any single grant they write for you.

18. 18

    How do you track deadlines and requirements across funders?

    You want to hear about an actual calendar or tracker you can see, covering submission dates, report dates and eligibility windows. Vagueness here is the most common reason a renewal quietly gets missed.

19. 19

    Looking at us, what do you think will be the most common reason we get declined?

    It asks for an assessment before they are hired, which is the closest thing to a free work sample you will get. Useful answers name something structural: thin outcome data, no audited financials, or programs described in language funders do not use.

20. 20

    What would make you decide not to take us on?

    Anyone experienced has criteria: no board engagement, an unrealistic budget, an expectation that grants will cover an operating deficit, a director who will not sit for an interview. The list tells you what they think a workable client is, and whether you are one.